cried out to the magistrates, "Set my name down,
he is a friend of mine; I will be security for him." When the other
bidders heard this, they perceived that all their contrivance was
defeated; for their way was, with the profits for the second year to pay
the rent for the year preceding; so that, not seeing any other way to
extricate themselves out of the difficulty, they began to treat with the
stranger, and offered him a sum of money. Alcibiades would not suffer
him to accept of less than a talent; but when that was paid down, he
commanded him to relinquish the bargain, having by this device relieved
his necessity.

Though Socrates had many power rivals, yet the natural good qualities
of Alcibiades gave his affection the mastery. His words overcame him so
much, as to draw tears from his eyes, and to disturb his very soul. Yet
sometimes he would abandon himself to flatteries, when they proposed to
him varieties of pleasure, and would desert Socrates; who, then, would
pursue him, as if he had been a fugitive slave. He despised every one
else, and had no reverence or awe for any but him. But as iron which
is softened by the fire grows hard with the cold, and all its parts are
closed again; so, as often as Socrates observed Alcibiades to be misled
by luxury or pride he reduced and corrected him by his addresses, and
made him humble and modest, by showing him in how many things he was
deficient, and how very far from perfection in virtue.

When he was past his childhood, he went once to a grammar-school, and
asked the master for one of Homer's books; and when he made answer that
he had nothing of Homer's, Alcibiades gave him a blow with his fist, and
went away. Another schoolmaster telling him that he had a copy of Homer
corrected by himself; "Why?" said Alcibiades, "do you employ your time
in teaching children to read? You, who are able to amend Homer, may well
undertake to instruct men."

When he was very young, he was a soldier in the expedition against
Potidaea, where Socrates lodged in the same tent with him, and stood
next to him in battle. Once there happened a sharp skirmish, in which
they both behaved with signal bravery; but Alcibiades receiving a wound,
Socrates threw himself before him to defend him, and beyond any question
saved him and his arms from the enemy, and so in all justice might
have challenged the prize of valor. But the generals appearing eager
to adjudge the honor to Alcibiades, because of his